In case you were paying attention I just rhymed off a list of some of the world's biggest banks, and in particular the biggest banks who play the biggest roles in making decisions about American economics. It isn't the politicians making the big decisions. They're only on the 4th highest rung of the chains of power. They take their marching orders from the big banks.

So what about the President of the United States you might ask.

Well, truth be told, the President of the United States is not the most powerful person in the world. He/she isn't even the most powerful person in the USA, and I shall explain why.

The US President has to ask congress for permission to do anything important. Oh sure, the president can sign presidential orders, do all sorts of minor stuff like pardoning ex-cons, But they need congressional authority to do anything truly important.

And congress is in the pockets of the big banks. Who do you think pays for their re-elections every 4 years? They're not paying it themselves, they're being bought and paid off by corporate donors and big banks.

For example the following is a list of Hillary Clinton's top donors:

Contributor / Total / Individual / PACs

Citigroup Inc

$824,402

$816,402

$8,000

Goldman Sachs

$760,740

$750,740

$10,000

DLA Piper

$700,530

$673,530

$27,000

JPMorgan Chase & Co

$696,456

$693,456

$3,000

Morgan Stanley

$636,564

$631,564

$5,000

EMILY's List

$609,684

$605,764

$3,920

Time Warner

$501,831

$476,831

$25,000

Skadden, Arps et al

$469,290

$464,790

$4,500

University of California

$417,327

$417,327

$0

Sullivan & Cromwell

$369,150

$369,150

$0

Akin, Gump et al

$364,478

$360,978

$3,500

Lehman Brothers

$362,853

$359,853

$3,000

21st Century Fox

$340,936

$340,936

$0

Cablevision Systems

$336,613

$307,225

$29,388

Kirkland & Ellis

$329,141

$312,141

$17,000

National Amusements Inc

$328,312

$325,312

$3,000

Squire Patton Boggs

$328,306

$322,868

$5,438

Greenberg Traurig LLP

$327,890

$319,790

$8,100

Corning Inc

$322,450

$304,450

$18,000

Credit Suisse Group

$318,120

$308,120

$10,000

This table lists the top donors to this candidate in 1999-2016.

Hmm.

And Bernie Sanders also has lots of top donors...

Contributor / Total / Individual / PACs

Machinists/Aerospace Workers Union

$105,000

$0

$105,000

Teamsters Union

$93,700

$700

$93,000

National Education Assn

$89,242

$8,242

$81,000

United Auto Workers

$79,750

$850

$78,900

United Food & Commercial Workers Union

$72,500

$0

$72,500

Communications Workers of America

$68,000

$1,500

$66,500

Laborers Union

$64,000

$0

$64,000

Carpenters & Joiners Union

$62,000

$0

$62,000

National Assn of Letter Carriers

$61,000

$0

$61,000

American Assn for Justice

$60,500

$500

$60,000

American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees

$58,198

$1,200

$56,998

Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

$53,100

$100

$53,000

United Transportation Union

$48,500

$0

$48,500

Sheet Metal Workers Union

$47,000

$0

$47,000

Operating Engineers Union

$46,100

$0

$46,100

Service Employees International Union

$44,014

$5,750

$38,264

UNITE HERE

$42,875

$3,250

$39,625

United Steelworkers

$41,750

$750

$41,000

American Postal Workers Union

$37,700

$0

$37,700

American Federation of Teachers

$36,112

$745

$35,367

This table lists the top donors to this candidate in 1989-2016.

Although oddly enough Bernie Sanders has mostly aligned himself with unions, auto workers, carpenters, steelworkers and teachers. And the overall numbers are smaller.

Probably because the big banks in America have most of the wealth and are intent on keeping it that way.

Meanwhile Donald Trump, as of January 31st 2016, has raised $21.3 million for his election bid from donors. And he has billions of his own money that he has so far barely even touched.

So here is real question...

If Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are already bought and paid for by the big banks, where does this leave Bernie Sanders? Yes, his biggest donors are unions - which implies that if he was president he would bring back an era of 1950s style pro-union economic reform that would truly make "America Great Again".

Seriously. The height of American economic growth was during the 1950s when unions became a big thing in the USA, giving many Americans good jobs with good pay. Ergo, unions are good for the economy.

The problem is that the USA is competing with companies overseas, like in China, where there are no unions. Which is funny because communists should really be pro-union, except they are not. Instead China is basically capitalism now, so much so that all four of the world's four biggest banks are all in China.

And capitalists hate unions. Big banks hate unions.

Want to know what happens every time bank tellers try to form an union? The bank in question starts closing down branches and firing everyone.

Below are the average wages of bank tellers from 4 different American banks:

Citibank Bank Teller

$14.24/hr

Capital One Bank Teller

$12.75/hr

PNC Financial Services Group Bank Teller

$10.59/hr

U.S. Bank Bank Teller

$11.52/hr

Hmm. So between $11.52 and $14.24 per hour.

That is barely above the minimum wage in Canada and roughly equal to the minimum wage in Britain.

Hear that ladies? If you are working as a bank teller in the USA you should move to Canada or Britain and become a bank teller there, you will get paid better.

Ever noticed how most bank tellers are women and get paid peanuts while the men in the boardrooms get paid millions?

Remember that feudalism graphic from above? Notice how many pictures of men were shown in the upper ranks of who really controls the USA.

Clearly it won't matter whether Bernie or Hillary or Donald gets elected. It will really come back to the issue of congress getting all of their funding from big banks.

And lest we also forget that most of the US National Debt is also owned by China, which is currently hovering around $19 trillion USD.

So basically anything the USA does, they have to ask China for permission.
And China has historically been very low on supporting unions, the rights of women, and freedom in general. Their mantra is to basically to censor anything they don't want people to know about. Things like who really decides the presidency.